Frank Rizzo

Francis Lazzaro Rizzo Sr. (23 October 1920-16 July 1991) was Mayor of Philadelphia (D) from 3 January 1972 to 7 January 1980, succeeding James H.J. Tate and preceding Bill Green III. Rizzo, who had previously served as police commissioner from 1968 to 1971, was known for his strong-handed approach to crime in his city, and he was accused of being racist.

Biography
Francis Lazzaro Rizzo Sr. was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1920, and he joined the police in the 1940s, rising to become police commissioner in 1967. He was boisterous and brutish, and he was elected as Mayor in 1971. However, he was controversial, as he was accused of using the police to focus on crime in African-American neighborhoods, and he was criticized for strip-searching Black Panther Party members after raiding their offices on 31 August 1970 in reaction to the BPP's declaration of war on police nationwide. However, during Rizzo's time as commissioner, Rizzo's force was 20% black (in 1968), one of the largest perrcentages in the country. Two months after being sworn in as mayor in 1972, Rizzo endorsed Republican Party presidential nominee Richard Nixon in return for more federal funding, but the city's Democrats viewed this as Rizzo betraying his own party. In 1973, his chances of winning the governorship were destroyed when he lost a lie detector test while accusing Peter Camiel of corruption, having just insisted that the machine always stood true. Nevertheless, Rizzo was re-elected, and he survived a 1975 recall attempt backed by his opponents and by fiscal conservatives who opposed his slight raising of taxes. He was forced to leave office due to term limits, and he became a Republican in 1986. In 1991, he won the Republican primary for the mayoral election, but died of a heart attack before he could compete in the general election. His son Frank Rizzo Jr. would also enter politics in the state.